Your Michigan Spittin’ Sister has been down but not out. Today I share a possible recipe for progress. Please consider the following and take action on behalf of all American women and families:

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has proven he is willing to veto negative and damaging legislation handed to him by his party by rejecting voter suppression laws in Michigan.

Now is the time to demand that Michigan’s Governor make a statement regarding the draconian anti-women legislation bills being introduced, and passed, through Michigan legislative processes.

MI HR 5711, introduced on 5/31/2012 with only one day of testimony that left many qualified speakers and supporters, including House legislators, unheard from, was passed on 6/13/2012. Hundreds of Planned Parenthood, NOW and ACLU supporters took to the rotunda on June 12, 2012, when the vote was first expected to take place in opposition to the legislation.

Please remember this is the day that Michigan State Representatives Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum were silenced and banned from speaking further on the House floor for making statements that violated the “decorum of the House of Representatives.” Viva la VAGINA! Check out the beautiful cupcakes below!

Chaos Bakery’s Vagina Cupcakes (Boca Raton, FL)

MI HR Bills 5712-13 will be sent back for review and are likely to be resubmitted to the floor in the future. These bills, including MI HR 5711, will make Michigan women’s reproductive health laws the most restrictive in the nation. The MI HR 5711 legislation will be before the Michigan House Senate in September at the earliest.

In response to my phone inquiry about where Governor Snyder stands on the issue of these bills his office staff acknowledged that a statement regarding the bills has not been made but that the Governor has stated his belief that Michigan legislators should be working on jobs and the economy, not women’s reproductive health, not the bills that were rammed through in less than two weeks.

However, since the debacle became news fodder for the entire nation and beyond the Governor has still not denounced the lack of progress in economic areas while his party continues to pander to Catholic Bishops, Right to Life of Michigan and Family Values groups and voters, many of those with strong West Michigan ties to Snyder’s home turf.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix, 1831On the original posting of this note on our Spittin Out the Pitts facebook page above a reader asked what was I trying to say with this picture. The painting is called Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix painted in 1830, exhibited in the Salon in 1831 and hangs permanently in the Louvre. You can find more about the painting’s history here.

Viva La France!

Yes, it is revolutionary art (French), and the meaning for me lies in the fact that many cultures depict liberty as a woman. In America, we have the Statue of Liberty as a beacon of hope and welcome and she still stands as so, for now.

Liberty is a concept lost to the ladies when religious and conservative forces are calling the shots to control our bodies. This message above is imploring women to recognize that their individual freedoms are at stake and that we must be leaders to uphold standards of freedom to choose our own destinies.

If we cannot chose when or how to control out reproductive health then we are also at mercy to control our economic freedom and independence. Our families, our children’s and grandchildren’s futures will be less empowered and more dictated by those who would have patriarchal reform in our country.

Ladies, our foremothers fought long and hard for the right to vote. Then, again, they demanded the right for reproductive freedoms to choose when to start families. Check out this short timeline for the history of birth control.

Abortion in Colonial America

Abortion was legal in Colonial America. In 1821 the first state criminalized abortion and by 1900 all states had criminalized abortion. In 1973 the Supreme Court instated a women’s right to have an abortion and held states to standards of strict scrutiny when restricting women’s right to abortion.

Since the 112th Congress has been in service to it’s country the amount of restrictive legislation and rhetoric at both federal and state levels has been astounding and seriously attacking women’s life and liberty. HR 358, “Protect Life Act” introduced to Congress with Joe Pitts as sponsor in February 2011 would allow women to die in hospitals was quickly received as the “Let Women Die” bill by the public and not passed. Read Anne’s essay Republican Say in HR 358 l Women Must Die Rather Than Receive Abortion

Since the rejection of HR 358 by the US Congress states have been introducing more bills that would restrict women’s reproductive health, defund clinics that provide essential family planning services, and provide rights to fertilized human eggs that are equal or more protective than that of living, breathing women. Spittin’ Out the Pitts maintains to our core that women are more than “incubators” for zygotes as Bart Stupak (D-MI) called us and that these continual personhood arguments lessen and remove liberty and civil rights of women.

Republican Lawmakers As Skirt Chasers

The United States has many laws in place that protects taxpayer funds from paying for abortion services, and yet the 112th Congress plus state legislatures across the country, through heavy lobby interests by fundamental religious organizations, continue to whip up fear and frenzy, manipulating the public with lies and distortions of religious freedoms being under attack. We assure you that taxpayer funds are well-protected and not paying for abortions, domestic or abroad - read Lisa’s first AOC article, Life Before Liberty l Patriarch John Boehner Moves Against American Women.

We the people. Liberty and Justice For All. These words are inclusive and we choose Lady Liberty in all her forms, whether it be revolutionary art, or goddess inspired. And we will be Spittin’ out the (Joe) Pitts’ on our journey for Justice for American women and ALL women.

I know this is a shopping cart overflowing with information. But it’s all related! Women’s rights has gotten very messy in America. This Spittin’ Sister has put her foot down on the accelerator to sounding a major alarm bell for the future of American women.

This gal doesn’t believe in the “hear no evil; see no evil” approach to American politics. Right-wing zealots are evil! ~ Lisa

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